Amcor to Buy Aperio Group For A$238 Million

By Ray Brindal and Gillian Tan

Amcor said Wednesday it has agreed to buy Aperio Group for A$238 million, subject to regulatory and other usual conditions, including approval from the competition watchdog.

Aperio is owned by private equity concern Catalyst Investment Managers and is one of the Asia Pacific’s leading producers of flexible packaging products with 13 manufacturing facilities in Australasia and a plant in Thailand and has annual revenues of A$350 million, Amcor said in a statement.

After the purchase, the combined flexible packaging business in the Asia Pacific will generate turnover of A$1.2 billion from 34 plants, it said.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is already investigating the transaction and previously said it intends to make a final decision on March 29.

Late February, in a statement of issues driven in part by responses from customers and other suppliers, the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission, said for now it considers Amcor’s proposed acquisition may substantially lessen competition.

The merger parties told the ACCC there is only limited overlap between their respective operations, in terms of products supplied, and that the proposed acquisition wouldn’t result in significant market concentration.

Under Catalysts’ watchful eye, Aperio’s strategy of industry consolidation saw it acquire FPS International in December 2005, Epic Packaging and the Finewrap Group both in July 2006 and a 70% stake in New Zealand-based Packsys in December 2008.

“It looks like awell priced acquisition and they have a reasonable synergy opportunities as well…Amcor have a good track record of acquisitions over the past few years,” Macquarie analyst John Purtell told Deal Journal Australia. “There’s a degree of confidence by announcing the deal that the company thinks they’ll secure ACCC approval.”

Deal Journal Australia reported in January that Pact Group was the other interested buyer of Aperio.

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About Deal Journal Australia

Deal Journal Australia is an up-to-the-minute take on the deals and deal makers that shape the Australian landscape, including mergers and acquisitions, capital raisings, private equity and debt markets. In short, wherever money changes hands. Deal Journal Australia is updated throughout each trading day with exclusive commentary, analysis, data, news flashes and profiles. The Wall Street Journal’s Gillian Tan is the lead writer, with contributions from other Journal and Dow Jones reporters and editors. Send news items, comments and questions to gillian.tan@wsj.com.

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